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The Weird Novel Chapters
List of most recent chapters published for the The Weird novel. A total of 163 chapters have been translated and the release date of the last chapter is Apr 02, 2024
Latest Release: Chapter 1 : The Weird.Jeff VanderMeer.Dedicated to Nicolas Cheetham, Gio Clairval, and all of the ed
The Weird.Jeff VanderMeer.Dedicated to Nicolas Cheetham, Gio Clairval, and all of the editors who helped us by way of example or advice.Foreweird.Michael Moorc.o.c.k.KEEP Austin Weird, it says on a popular b.u.mper sticker for the city where I spend much
- 163 2 I received your mournful congratulations, he wrote me. You scoff, my lamentable friend, in envy, but you shall confess though the words stick in your throat! that this time I have crowned my cap with the most scarlet of plumes; my turban, with the most
- 162 Margo Lanagan: 'Singing My Sister Down' by Margo Lanagan, copyright 2004. Originally published in Black Juice, Allen & Unwin. Reprinted by permission of Allen & Unwin, PTY LTD.Tanith Lee: 'Yellow and Red' by Tanith Lee, copyright 1998. Originally publ
- 161 Afterweird: The Efficacy of a Worm-Eaten Dictionary.China Mieville.How should we conduct investigations? We need access to the innards of whatever we would understand, but if we take a scalpel to their skins we change them, and the only thing we end up in
- 160 I don't know what I was expecting-Middle Earth, or Jupiter, or Tuscany, or what. But I could never in a million years have guessed the truth. I pulled my head out."It's the vacant lot behind the public library," I said.I think that eve
- 159 It was the lumberjack.When I stopped walking, he looked back.The way I knew he was real was that he wasn't holding a double-edged axe, like all the lumber-jacks from my childhood did.He wasn't lost, either.'Tad,' he called back to me.T
- 158 'Which will be?''I haven't got a t.i.tle for it yet,' he admitted. 'This. All of this. How they've changed.''That'll take some working-out,' I said.He nodded glumly. 'Tell me about it,' he s
- 157 With a grunt Peter hit the bottom of the moat and scrambled up the other side to where I was. 'Slowly,' I warned him, hoisting him up alongside me. 'Quiet. Don't get them any more wound up.'Though out of breath from his sprint, Pe
- 156 They find a punchbowl roped in cobwebs and fill it with water and stare in to see the silk awake. They turn off all the flashlights and haunt each other in the dark with sobs and screeches. They roast marshmallows with a butane lighter. The boy recites th
- 155 In the morning, Clare was gone. I sat at the kitchen table, worrying and wondering if she'd gone off like some marsh spirit, wandering the Levels in the morning mist. Twenty minutes after I'd drunk my second cup of tea, she was back, looking ros
- 154 'Yeah,' Beasley said. 'You okay?'Partridge was not sure. 'Uh,' he said. He rolled his head to survey the twilight vista. 'Beasley.''Yeah?''All this.' Partridge swept his hand to encompa.s.s the s
- 153 'You don't sleep well either, huh,' she said.'Nope. Not since Bangladesh.''That long. Huh.'He propped himself on his elbow and studied her. 'I've been considering my options lately. I'm thinking it might be time to hang up my spurs. Go live in t
- 152 'Behold the Moorehead Estate,' Beasley said as he parked by slamming the brakes so the truck skidded sideways and its tires sent up a geyser of dirt. 'Howard and Tos.h.i.+ bought it from the county about fifteen years ago guess the original family died
- 151 'They have everything to wait for,' she said. 'How do we know they don't? How do we know anything about them? We don't even know their names.''You're being argumentative,' I said.'No, I'm being realistic,' she said.'And you're being confront
- 150 And Mumma was talking, wearily, as if she'd been going on a long time, and soothingly, which was like a beautiful guide-rope out of my sickness, which my brain was following hand over hand. It's what they do to people, what they have to do, and all you
- 149 We all went down to the tar-pit, with mats to spread our weight.Ikky was standing on the bank, her hands in a metal twin-loop behind her. She'd stopped sulking; now she looked, more, stare-y and puzzled.Chief Barnarndra pointed to the pit. 'Out you go t
- 148 'I'll call later,' Ian said.'Do. I'll talk with Kit. We'll arrange things. But, Ian? Diane needs you.''I know she does. I don't want to leave her. Especially now, I just...''I didn't mean don't go,' Tohiro said. 'I meant don't get caught.
- 147 'There are a lot of anti-anxiety drugs,' she agreed. 'Some of them may help. But only with the symptoms, not the problem. And the trauma, whatever it is...it may be something ongoing.''Christ.''She's graduating in a few weeks here. Next year's mi
- 146 'What in Christ's name is going on in here?' Ian demanded.'Sh...she hit me,' Kit began, her voice rising as the tears began. 'I didn't do anything and she just hit me.''Diane?'His daughter blinked and her gaze flickered at her friend, as if look
- 145 He climbed up the steepest stepladder to the twilight of the room's ceiling and took a metal box from the top of one of the bookcases. He unlocked it and drew an old writing book bound in crumpled black leather from within. The t.i.tle page was written i
- 144 'Well,' said Borchert. 'Truth is important to you after all, Mr. Kline.'He was sitting in his chair, a gun in his hand gripped awkwardly with his remaining fingers. 'Please stay right there, Mr. Kline,' he said.'It's not loaded,' said Kline.'No?
- 143 'Gous is a one,' said Ramse. 'We can't bring a one in.' 'I was a one,' said Kline. 'They brought me in.''I'm not a one,' said Gous, lifting up his hand. 'Not any more.''Still,'
- 142 'Aline?' Andreissen shook his head, laughed. 'You're pulling my leg.''Aline's dead.''It's impossible,' said Andreissen.'Why do you think I'm here?''I saw him just yesterday,'
- 141 But before he had made the third floor he was struck hard on the back of the head. A stair tread rose up and struck his face. By the time he got up, there were one-eyed men all around him, and his own blood was getting into his eyes. Then they were hittin
- 140 The back of the room wasn't a solid wall at all but a divider, a series of linked panels that, he saw, looking more closely, slid along a metal track in the floor. The two central panels each had a handle and a latch holding them together.'Would
- 139 What could blood tell? he wondered. Where blood was could tell a lot. Could blood itself tell nothing?He got out his keys and dug at the blood in the center of the stain. The top 1/4' layer cracked away in bits, but underneath it merely separated. Ri
- 138 'You don't know what an honor this is for you,' said Borchert. 'It's quite a gesture of intimacy. Almost anyone here would kill for it. A shame it's wasted on you.''I'll take your word for it,' said Kline.
- 137 'You may enter,' said the guard. 'The others may not.''But we're here with Kline,' said Ramse. We're bringing Kline to Borchert.''Kline?' said the guard. 'We've been waiting for him. He can
- 136 'Why me?' asked Kline.'You have a certain amount of experience in investigation,' said Gous.'Not investigation exactly, but infiltration,' said Ramse.'And you don't flinch, Mr. Kline,' said Gous.'No, he do
- 135 'Ah,' said Kline. 'I'm afraid so.''Look at you,' said Torn-Lip. 'Do you want to die in bed?''You don't want to die in bed,' said Low Voice.'We're here to save you,' said Torn-Lip.&
- 134 'For what?' I asked.'Town management,' he replied.I finished off the last few spoonfuls of my soup. I wiped my mouth with a paper napkin. 'Tell me more,' I said.It was either that or make an end of it.The Brotherhood of Mutil
- 133 'You're scaring me,' she whispered back, arms thrown around him. 'Come with me.''I will, Rebecca. Rebecca, I will. In just a minute. But now, I need you to leave.' He was trembling from the horror of the thought that he
- 132 What had Samuel Hoegbotton seen? And was it necessary to disappear to have seen it?After that visit, even the abandoned rooms of the Silence lost their hold on Hoegbotton. He would go in with the workmen and find old, dimly lit s.p.a.ces from which whatev
- 131 'Not very.''Really? Why not?'He stiffened. If she'd been there, would Rebecca have realized the mansion had become a deathtrap? Would she have smelled the blood, tasted the fear? He served as her eyes, but would he deprive her any
- 130 She took his arm and looked up into his eyes, and they walked away out of the cafe's light for all the world like a couple of teenagers who were just beginning to realize that they were in love.I went back up to the counter and bought another cup of
- 129 I remember the disembodied, unreal feeling I had as I finished reading. His words sank through and past me, and drained out of me.I read his words, and the larvae hatched in my mind. (what or how did the larvae appear to me...such questions can only waste
- 128 There are a number of thin metal plinth-bridges, that connect the island on this side with the mainland. From there, it's only a brief walk to the edge of town, where there's a chain-link fence mounded over with ivy. The suburbs for which these
- 127 Her voice ebbed out. I waited a minute for her to resume, but she did not do so. Eventually I knocked nervously on the door and called her name. There was no answer. I put my ear to the door. I could hear her crying, quietly.I went home without the bowl.
- 126 There was a young Asian woman who wore a lot of makeup and smoked obsessively. She ignored me totally. There were two drunks who came sometimes. One would greet me boisterously and incomprehensibly, raising his arms as if he wanted to hug me into his stin
- 125 'Er, listen, Mr. Satterlee,' Onheuser went on. 'I hope you won't mind my asking. That is, I hope it's not a, well, a confidential police matter, or something of the sort. But I know that when I do get through to them, out in Canto
- 124 'If you'll all please excuse us for a moment,' he says, so she knows that he's seen, that he understands, and he puts one of his long arms around her shoulders. 'I need to steal her away for just a few minutes.' There's
- 123 Mr. Coeslak won't stay in the house after dark, but he agreed to find someone to look after Samantha and Claire. Then their father couldn't find Mr. Coeslak, but the babysitter showed up precisely at seven o'clock. The babysitter, whose nam
- 122 'Yes, I'm afraid that is so. Your Grandfather he was before my time, of course. And his wife. Your father was long from home, and his brother, Mr William, was sent out into the world at twenty...before there was any problem at the house. The two
- 121 'Goblin, Goblin, strangle Rat! Rat won't bite Stiff. Stiff won't go through the stile, and I shan't get home by dark!' The unsanitary goblin lifted its pointy head to listen, then smirked and slipped back into the refuse. The old
- 120 Each doll's murky history was unfolded to me; the old woman picked them up and dismissed them with such confident authority I soon realised she knew all the little girls whose names she'd given to the dolls intimately. She must have been the nan
- 119 'Stay here,' my father said at last, and skidded sideways down the bank, digging his shoes into the rich soft soil and holding his arms out for balance. I stood where I was, holding the Bible stiffly out at the ends of my arms like a willow-fork
- 118 My bladder let go, and the scuffed brown the dead bee was lying on went a darker brown. I was hardly aware of what had happened, and I couldn't take my eyes off the man standing on top of the bank and looking down at me, the man who had walked out of
- 117 The pier groaned and a loud crack heralded a sudden tilting of the world. George fell to his knees. A long sliver of wood entered the palm of his hand, and he tried to keep from pitching forward.Mrs. Franklin, still standing, shouted over the wind. '
- 116 'Yes sir.''I'm sorry about what happened to your father,' he said, looking in her eyes.'Yes sir,' Melissa said. She leaned forward and touched her shoe.'Do you know what happened to your father?' Dr. Gowers ask
- 115 George turned away from the window and grinned. 'Well, I can't accuse your family of ever acting impulsively although it would do them a world of good. Your family packs a suitcase to go to the grocery store.''And your side steals a ca
- 114 Martin Simpson (1962) is an American writer who has won the British Fantasy Award and serves as the Director of the University of Florida's Reading & Writing Center. Ann VanderMeer published his first story, 'Last Rites and Resurrections' (
- 113 He manifestly wasn't convinced. 'It's not illusions I'm talking about. I'm talking more along the lines of ' he couldn't look at me now, so he compelled me not to look at him by pointing down at his map of the cemetery &
- 112 'I mean the roll was fogged, all twelve negs burned black, pure white prints. Nothing on them.I thought I could bring them with me, but it didn't work.''Wait a minute. You telling me there's no trade?' Now he was p.i.s.sed, a
- 111 'No.' She held the scraggy, ugly thing close and gazed at Stuart like a dispa.s.sionate executioner. 'I'm sorry, Stuart, I really am, but this is nonnegotiable. If you can't accept that you'd better leave.'This was the s
- 110 He did not miss the p.r.o.noun s.h.i.+ft. 'It might have rabies.''Don't be silly.''Don't you be silly; it's not exactly native, is it? It might be carrying all sorts of foul parasites from South America or Africa or
- 109 Haruki Murakami.Translated into English by Philip Gabriel.Haruki Murakami (1949) is an iconic j.a.panese writer whose novels, short stories, and works of nonfiction have garnered him significant critical acclaim and numerous awards, including the Franz Ka
- 108 's.h.i.+t,' said the third man. I didn't know if it was David's story or the shot. A fourth man sat down.'I risk a light, and the whole tunnel is covered with spiders, covered like wallpaper, only worse, two or three bodies thick,
- 107 Michal Ajvaz.Translated into English by James Naughton.Michal Ajvaz (1949) is a Czech novelist, poet and translator. Born into an exiled Russian family, Ajvaz studied Czech studies and aesthetics at Charles University in Prague. He did not begin publis.h.
- 106 Family.Joyce Carol Oates.Joyce Carol Oates (1938) is an American author who has published over fifty novels, as well as many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. Her novel them (1969) won the National Book Award, and her novels Black Water (1
- 105 He sees me.I woke with a garbled scream, arms flailing, to my dark room bathed in the ambient glow of monitors. I stumbled to the window, knelt with my forehead against the cool oak sill and blinked against tears that welled unbidden from my burning eyes.
- 104 'Yes.' I removed my hat and dropped it. 'Anna gave me this bandeau.''It's lovely.' She knelt before one of the tables and motioned for me to do the same. Her face was puffy, her eyes slitted. I wondered if she would cry
- 103 I was right. If Dr. Harrow hadn't been so anxious about the chance to reclaim one of the d.a.m.ned and her own reputation, she'd have known, too. Psychotics, autists, artists of the lesser rank: these could be altered by empatherapy. I'd si
- 102 The huts looked solid and clean with their white ochred walls. The iroko and baobab trees were neatly s.p.a.ced. The bushes were lush. The air was scented with flamingo flowers.We arrived at the village square when it occurred to me that the place was vag
- 101 'Yes. Please. I can't bear what I'm feeling. I've been through so much, seen so much these last months, I...''Help you?' the old man said again, whispering the phrase as if it had been rendered in a lost language. '
- 100 He tried to ask what it was she had felt, what it was in him that had so unhinged her, but she reached in with the flexing hand and touched his forearm.'You'll have to come with me.''Where?''To meet the real REM Group.'A
- 99 Harlan Ellison.Harlan Ellison (1934) is an iconic writer called 'one of the great living American short story writers' by The Was.h.i.+ngton Post. His career has spanned over fifty years and he has won more awards for his work than any other liv
- 98 'You see,' he went on, 'when I appeared in the village, when I walked around and' he chuckled 'haunted the place, those times were like sleepwalking. I barely knew what was happening. But the rest of the time, I was somewhere else
- 97 I sat and sipped and stared, thoughtless and unfocused. The bicyclists zipping past were bright blurs with jingling bells, and the light was that heavy leaded-gold light that occurs when a tropical sun has broken free of an overcast. Smells of charcoal, f
- 96 Then I saw that I had never known him and that I had never even wanted to know him. And as he grew, he became thinner and more indistinct; his form slipped into the darkness of the stairwell and he no longer had shape or ma.s.s.But his eyes, his eyes rema
- 95 Longhorn raised his finger and pointed westward. And there, too, I saw demolition work, destruction, collapse, landslides. But almost at the same time, in place of the former constructions, new forms began to appear, softly curving mall complexes, flights
- 94 'But this part of the city is old,' I thought aloud. 'Was it not surveyed many generations ago? What could there be to measure here?'He looked at me in disbelief. 'What is there to measure?' he asked. 'It was a different
- 93 But today I walked past a chirping flock of sparrows and it fell silent as a wave of nausea swept across me and suddenly the earth gave way beneath my feet and I remembered once more that beneath Tainaron is nothing but a crust, as insubstantial as one ni
- 92 'Why do you keep asking?' Longhorn cried, growing angry. 'They set fire to themselves.'But I could not stop; I went on, stubbornly: 'But who are they? What do they want?'Longhorn had turned his back to me and was pretending t
- 91 The meadow murmured around us as I thought, and its scents began to make both of us feel faint. We walked under a clouds of meadowsweet they were indeed in full flower but at that moment I would rather have been walking on regular, hard, reliable paving s
- 90 'Do what you like I'm walking.'His footsteps receded: the dark encased him.After a minute, Judd followed.The night was cloudless and bitter. They walked on, their collars up against the chill, their feet swollen in their shoes. Above them t
- 89 'We haven't even got a map...it's in the car.''Jesus...Christ...Almighty.'They walked down the track together, away from the field.After a few meters the tide of blood began to peter out. Just a few congealing rivulets dribbl
- 88 'Sounds almost like guns,' he said, starting the car. 'Big guns.'Through his Russian-made binoculars Vaslav Jelovsek watched the starting-official raise his pistol. He saw the feather of white smoke rise from the barrel, and a second l
- 87 'They're all masterpieces according to that b.l.o.o.d.y book.'Mick felt his control slipping.'Two and a half hours at most''I told you, I don't want to see another church; the smell of the places makes me sick. Stale inc
- 86 'Ask me, Gatoi.''For my children's lives?'She would say something like that. She knew how to manipulate people, Terran and Tlic. But not this time.'I don't want to be a host animal,' I said. 'Not even yours.�
- 85 T'Gatoi picked up the writhing grub carefully and looked at it, somehow ignoring the terrible groans of the man.Abruptly, the man lost consciousness.'Good,' T'Gatoi looked down at him. 'I wish you Terrans could do that at will.�
- 84 'I'm tired,' I said. It was the truth. The trip across the street had been exhausting.'Me, too.' She yawned.'Want to get some sleep?' I knew she did. I was just staying a step or two ahead of her so she wouldn't hav
- 83 'I want you to take me down there,' she said in the tone she used when she wanted to be stubborn. 'If you don't want to help, okay. But I do.''No!' I said that louder than I wanted to and she flinched. More softly: '
- 82 Premendra Mitra.Translated into English by P. Nandy.Premendra Mitra (19041988) was a renowned Bengali poet, novelist and short-story writer. He was also an author of Bangla science fiction and thrillers. He was born in Varanasi, India. His work was first
- 81 But in the morning she was gone.Her clothes lasted a little longer, which worried me, as I had visions of A. R. committing flashery around and about the neighborhood, but in a few days they too had faded into mist or the elemental particles of time or wha
- 80 I knew then that if I reached out I would touch some transparent membrane which had grown up between us to protect the secret. I nodded hopelessly. 'That's fine,' I said. 'Good.' I arranged to meet him again soon. I arranged to me
- 79 'I don't quite see what he's getting at,' I said.'Ah,' said Lucas. He thought for a moment. He had expected my reaction, I could see, but was disappointed all the same. 'You saw the hole in his argument though?' He
- 78 Something in him yearned for a confrontation. He reached his table, but found himself unable to sit down. He turned, took a deep breath, and walked woodenly toward the bar. He wanted to tap her on her smooth shoulder and ask who she was, and exactly what
- 77 A sequence of unbearable images unfolded in the doctor's mind, even as the robot carrion turned from the gurney and walked to the instrument table: the sheriff's arrival just after dawn, alone of course, since Craven always took thought for his
- 76 'They sure do hang on. You take off now, Trav. Get some sleep and be back at sunup. What temperature we getting?'The pale stetson, far clearer in the starlight than the shadowface beneath it, wagged dubiously. 'Thirty-six. She won't ge
- 75 At once he regretted that thought. The old woman's face loomed behind him: eyes still as metal, skin the colour of pale bone. He turned nervously; the light capered. Of course there was only the quivering mouth of the hall. But the face was present n
- 74 Krantz was babbling uncontrollably. 'We're still here, Gilson, we're still here, we still exist, everything seems the same. Maybe he didn't change things much, maybe the future is fixed and he didn't change anything at all. I was
- 73 Kress stopped suddenly. 'No,' he said, 'oh, no. Oh, no.' He backpedaled, slipped on the sand, got up and tried to run again. They caught him easily. They were ghastly little things with bulging eyes and dusky orange skin. He struggled,
- 72 Kress sobbed, and was very still for a while, but nothing happened.He opened his eyes again. He trembled. Slowly the shadows began to soften and dissolve. Moonlight was filtering through the high windows. His eyes adjusted.The living room was empty. Nothi
- 71 Down in his deepest wine cellar, he came upon Cath m'Lane's corpse.It sprawled at the foot of a steep flight of stairs, the limbs twisted as if by a fall. White mobiles were swarming all over it, and as Kress watched, the body moved jerkily acro
- 70 'No,' Kress said. 'I am their master and their G.o.d, after all. Why should I wait on their impulses? They did not war often enough to suit me. I corrected the situation.''I see,' said Wo. 'I will discuss the matter with
- 69 The letters stopped. Through the fog, Kress saw something moving. That was enough for him, that and the word 'Lifeforms' in their advertis.e.m.e.nt. He swept his walking cloak over his shoulder and entered the store.Inside, Kress felt disoriente
- 68 Anybody there got a light?Someone tapped the back of my chair and handed me a book of matches. I pa.s.sed it to the registrar. He opened it, tore out a match, struck its blue tip a rasp, the sudden burst of fire on the flint-strip. He cupped his mittens o
- 67 Silence. Then all three of them begin to howl like dogs.The crowd is thinning out in the hallway. Under the pale oval, an old gent with graying hair wets his moustache in a last swig of bourbon. Frosted cubes tinkle at the sides of the gla.s.s through whi
- 66 My G.o.d, it is everything, he thinks. It is Hamlin in reverse; all the abused ones, the gentle ones, are leaving the world. He risks another glance back and thinks he can see a human child too and maybe an old person among the throng, all measuredly, sil
- 65 'Oh, no, sir!' cries Lipsitz, horrified.'What are you actually doing with those rats? I hear all kinds of idiotic rumors.''Well, I'm working up the genetic strains, sir. The coefficient of h.o.m.ozygosity is still very low fo
- 64 Cold.He removed his hand, and a dead moth clung to his thumb. He tried to brush it off the hood, but other moth bodies stuck in its place. Then he saw countless shriveled, mummified moths pasted over the hood and top like peeling chips of paint. His finge